


The Mad King

by Jesusswissarmyknife



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Mad King Ryan, Minecraft, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-01 11:32:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2771450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jesusswissarmyknife/pseuds/Jesusswissarmyknife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>King Geoff was awesome . Gavin is dumb , Ryan's an asshole, kill Ryan</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

And so the royal line ended short with the death of the fair and beloved King Geoff Ramsey.

All Hail The Mad King.

Prologue

Gavin Free was nothing more than a fool raised by what were considered barbarians in an outlying town occupied by one of the most feared and hated creatures in the land. King Ramsey brought him in out of the endless kindness he had in his heart. Free was seen as a court jester at most by the people of the kingdom, but other than the few critics he was beloved by all. He was part of a family for the first time that loved him and he had a best friend found in a servant to the king, Ray Narvaez Jr. who had come to the city to make himself a new life. One that did not involve as much crime as the one before. Free never wanted to bring forth the downfall of the king he loved so much, but any fool would crack with the promise of wealth and glory waved in front of his face,

Ryan Haywood was thought to be the most trustworthy, valiant, and loyal knight in all of Achievement City maybe even the entire world. His years of war had obviously taken their toll on him but he remained at arms. No one would have ever considered he’d go back on the king until the mercenary was hired.

The king had a justifiable reason for it. A new mine had been opened and they had discovered one of the necromancer Kdin’s spawners there. The beasts ravaged the forests and King Ramsey knew his knights stood no chance. Not long before the event King Ramsey had heard of a mercenary who lived in that forest who went by the name Mogar who had come to Achievement City. Legend had stated they were born in the forest and raised by the animals there. Geoff didn’t quite believe the legends, but he decided to hire this mercenary since he knew the forest better than his own men.

Sir Haywood was outraged. He knew his men were better than any wild man. Maybe it was his distrust of the wild from his deep seeded fear and hatred of magic or maybe it was that he’d been at the murdering end of the sword one too many times. After the battle he made it clear that he would accept no strangers in their city. Rumors of Ryan’s madness spread like wildfire, but it either never reached the king or he just never worried about it. This ended up being his greatest mistake.

Ryan initially may not have wanted the king dead. He may have just been trying to regain control of his city that he forged with his men, but it was made clear a few months later that the king was what stood between him and power.

There was an event that made him snap for good. This is also the event where he gained his most loyal servant. It was the last mission the knights were given under the rule of the King. There job was to find and capture Kdin who had once again been causing issues in the forest. They were told not to kill him, but Ryan made it clear that that would be the only way to end the plague of monsters that the necromancer had set forth. Ryan knew that the only way to get back in good light was to do more than what was asked. To be better than the rotten mercenary and gain back the authority he once had. If he failed the knights would be meaningless when Mogar could do the same amount as all 9 of Ryan’s men. Unfortunately for Ryan, this mission would be a failure.

Kdin was well known for not hiding himself. He was cocky and knew his skills were good enough that no one could catch him even if they wanted to. Deep in the forest where the sun no longer shone through, where the deepest most ancient magic was born, is where Kdin stayed. Rumors of his monsters guarding the area was what kept most people away out of fear. Ryan made it clear that day that if anything got in their way no matter how powerful, they’d kill it.

Unfortunately, he overestimated his men. That day they met a dragon. No one knows when they did, where they did, or what happened the instant that they did. All that is known is that 10 men went in. Only 2 came back, blood stained, and one bleeding. It is rumored that Ryan killed his men in a fit of rage induced by their unwillingness to do more than what he said. It may have been from fear or that he pushed them too hard. People believe that the second to come back, a new knight, Kerry Shawcross,  had either begged enough to be spared or killed one of the men to save himself from his leader. Only a few facts are for sure. Kerry never left Ryan’s side after that day, Sir Haywood blamed it on a dragon, and King Geoff Ramsey ruled Mogar to protect the city for salary after the failure of his knights.

To Ryan this was unacceptable. He began to talk low of the king to other staff close to him. This was how the poor fool Gavin Free got involved. Upon hearing Ryan talking poorly of the king he intervened out of loyalty to the only outsider to show him kindness. A few “Mingy little pricks.” were thrown around, but Ryan was able to defend his opinion and get Free on his side. He did not do this by crafting some extravagant lie about his king, but by tempting a fool close to the one in charge with all the riches he’d never see in all his life. “What if you could be rich. Imagine yourself on that throne Gavin. If Geoff weren’t there you could be prince to my rule.” Not more than 2 weeks later, Gavin joined Ryan Haywood against the king.

Ryan’s plan was simple. The king already trusted him, but the fact that they no longer had many war meetings caused an issue with getting him alone. Ryan chose to “take some time off to clear his head” for the king to be less wary of him. Rather than waiting until his return to he himself kill the king he figured he could get the job done quicker using his new slave.

Gavin saw the king every day. He was close to the king and family and ate dinner with them alone with only one knight guarding usually. Gavin would kill the king after dinner. Gavin only had to know his part and not mess it up, but Ryan had reason to worry. Gavin was not the best at keeping secrets and even worse when he was hiding something he knew was wrong to hide. The dinner was awkward. Gavin was fidgety and awkward. Geoff brushed it off as nothing trusting that his strange adopted son was just being weird again. After dinner Geoff wished Gavin goodnight. Normally he stayed to have some drinks with Gavin, but tonight was different. When Geoff turned to leave the room Gavin took a metal candle holder in his hand Gavin followed. Finally ending his night saying “I’m sorry Geoff.” and striking his king on the head. King Ramsey fell and the moment he touched the floor Gavin took off running.

Someone stopped him from making his escape however. An old friend of his had seen Geoff fall. He tried to take Gavin down, to retain him so the guards could stop him. Before anything could happen to the former son of Geoff Ramsey his friend fell to the floor dead while Gavin stood helpless. The person whose bloodied blade had impaled Ray was Ryan.

The guards found Ryan sitting on Geoff’s throne wearing Geoff’s crown. Kerry stood to his left and Gavin stood on his right with silent tears streaming down his face. The guards took up arms to dethrone the unloyal knight.

3 died instantly and the rest were left writhing on the floor. Kdin entered the castle at that moment apologizing to Ryan for killing his former co-workers. Ryan would later explain his vacation was spent looking for Kdin. He knew they’d have similar goals and the kingdom would need a necromancer that powerful to protect them rather than destroy them. He gave a simple motive to everyone in the room. Join his side or be killed by magic. Later he would give the same motive to the rest of the kingdom.

And so, not more than a month after the knights downfall. He rose to the very top of the kingdom with blood on his blade. Gavin Free rose to crown prince and biggest fool in the kingdom with a heavy heart and a guilty conscious. The kingdom was ruled by enemies and allies became villains. Ryan promised everything in the world to the kingdom, but only meant it for himself. It was a dark time for all and Ryan was the only one with the light.

The kingdom of Achievement City will live on.

All Hail the Mad King.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

The fool, Gavin Free, now slept another uneasy night. He had felt no ounce of guilt before the king had fallen, but ever since that night his guilt had multiplied daily. What haunted him more than the death of his adopted family was the death of his best friend. All Ray wanted to do was protect the king He would’ve been loyal to Ryan with some convincing. Gavin knew it. Now it was too late to rewrite what had already happened. He was trapped in a hell of sleepless nights plagued by nightmares the recounted the scene of his best friend’s death over and over and over.

Unable to sleep a full night Gavin left his house every morning before sunrise. Today was no different. He pulled on a tunic and grabbed his bow and arrow ready to hunt for the families who remained. It was illegal technically to hunt in the forest, but that was one rule Ryan barely enforced since it was also very dangerous.

Ever since Geoff had died Ryan was focused on murdering another person in his way. Mogar lurked in the woods and never came into the city. Most outsiders were ignored unless they entered the main city, but Mogar had been assaulted enough times for him to give up even trying. Ryan decided the only way to get him for his execution was to lessen how much area he could hide. Every month miles of the forest would be burned and every week Kdin would search the woods using his monsters personally and every night his creatures lurked in the forests ready to kill. The way Gavin hunted, he was a sitting duck for at least 2 hours every day to be killed by zombies and skeletons. His time with creepers was all that protected him from that, but if anyone came with him he’d be dead. Not to mention if he happened to find one of Ryan’s secret builds that only he and his build team knew about.

Squeezing past the paintings on his walls that nearly covered the door of his small cobblestone house he stepped onto the green lawn of downtown Achievement City. The expansive woodland that remained was located only about 20 paces behind his house. Before he could even take two steps towards the forests behind his house he heard a familiar voice calling his name. “What is it Kerry.” Gavin groaned.

“King Ryan wishes to see you.”

Gavin looked at the servant and then looked at the sky, “He does realize it’s not even dawn right?”

“Yes.” He lowered his tone, “Gavin please we both don’t want any trouble from him.” He paused for a moment looking over the prince, “Today is thunderdome Gavin. He invited you.”

This surprised the prince. The monthly coliseum-like event had turned from a fun way to take a day off to some sick macabre monthly event that people only went to on invite. Ryan never invited Gavin to anything unless he wanted to talk. They didn’t have the same close bond Gavin once had with Geoff. Gavin was nothing more than a puppet that was played with then needed.

Slightly worried about what the king wanted, Gavin sighed and motioned for Kerry to go on ahead. He followed slowly and started at the large stone monolith of a castle in front of them.

It had once been the mark of pride and power. Geoff was the most powerful king and wanted the tallest structure in all the world as his castle. The other structures in downtown seemed to bow before it. They were small, wooden, and for the most part empty. Ray’s dirt hut was left to the elements since he died and was barely holding together. The carpenter, Jack, was off burning the forest and taking down trees for material along with his apprentices Matt and Jeremy. Kerry’s house was normally empty since he was at the king’s side 24/7 and the only other that remained was his own. The rest of the kingdom was similar. Many people left being unable to pay taxes or for fear they would be tortured by Kdin for his magic.

Once inside the castle Kerry stopped about twenty feet from the throne and motioned to have Gavin stop beside him. Ryan’s eyes bored into him as Kerry spoke, “I’ve brought you Prince Gavin, sir.” Like the lapdog he was, he ran to his side by the throne right after that.

Gavin rolled his eyes. Ryan obviously could see he was there. He looked up at the king and waited for his slimy grin to transform into speech. Before he spoke the king sat up slightly causing his jewelry to jingle on his hands and wrists. He adjusted his crooked crown and melodically began his speech. “I hope you don’t mind me asking you here. You do hunt everyday, so I figured one day off wouldn’t hurt.”

This made Gavin shudder slightly. How did the king know? “Ryan I-I just go out to practice

my archery. To be ready to defend you y’know.”

“Oh Gavin, no need to defend yourself. I’m not mad.” His voice was pulled in a soothing way, but Gavin only felt more fear. He wanted something big. “You spend every morning in the woods just for fun, correct?”

“Yes… sir.” He added the ‘sir’ quickly at the end nearly forgetting.

“See no problem if just for fun. Come my prince our horses are waiting.” Gavin hated how Ryan treated him almost like a child when he spoke to him. It was as if acting like nothing was wrong in the kingdom Gavin would believe it. Sadly that was almost true.

A small carriage was waiting outside with Kerry in the front. Thunderdome was a very short walk from the castle, but he knew Ryan never walked anywhere if he didn’t need to. The arena was not much more than a poorly constructed cobblestone pen. It didn’t have to be when the games were nothing more than knocking an opponent out of the ring. Now it was a fight to the death.

Gavin wasn’t uneasy from Ryan’s lack of speaking during the ride or the majority of the tournament. The prince was more focused on not paying attention to what was happening in the killing field. He knew that Ryan held these not to give free money to the winner, but to catch the mercenary that brought his downfall. Every time Ryan went to one of these he came back angry that his obvious plan hadn’t worked. During the final round Ryan finally spoke.

“I’ve burned so much of those woods.” He seemed to muse to himself looking in the direction of Achievement City,, “Yet that rat Mogar still  lurks outside of my grasp. We have Kdin on our side. How can we truly reach peace with someone lurking outside of our grasp just waiting to overthrow us.” With you gone Gavin wanted to say, “We won’t have much for supplies to mine and build if I burn anymore. I’m not crazy, I can see that much.” He sighed, “Gavin you are such a good, loyal prince. I don’t give you enough responsibility. I have a job for you now though.” He paused and smiled at the dumbfounded look on Gavin’s face, “Kill Mogar.”

“Why me?” Gavin questioned eyes locked on his king as the climax of the final fight sounded in the background. “Kdin can fight way bloody better than me!”

Ryan cut him off, “Yes, but you obviously know the forest better, little creeper boy.” Gavin flinched at the nickname, “Besides Kdin is busy, you wouldn’t want to harm our chances to be the strongest and best.”

Gavin was at a loss for words. He knew this day was coming, but he didn’t want to kill another person at Ryan’s command but if he didn’t he’d end up dead. “Yes, sir.” He mumbled.

“Good boy, Gavin. You can do it in week right? Find him. Kill him.”

Gavin nodded sadly. Ryan gave an ending speech just as he normally did talking about how soon the kingdom would be at peace and so on. Once that was over they left. Ryan swept himself into the castle quickly back to not acknowledging Gavin. As for the prince he sulked into his house and grabbed his supplies. A pack of clothes, some food, a stone sword, and his bow was all he really needed. He went to the stables as slow as he could dreading every step.

Jumping on his horse he took off. Once he was in the woods he went as fast as the animal could take him. It was almost like the speed could take his mind off what was happening. It helped a little. He rode through the trees rarely getting hit. When his horse needed a break he stopped by a small creek, cleaned it off, and let it rest. He spent that time hunting. He had Jack make him a new bow for missions not long ago, and was happy to finally use it rather than his old raggedy bow he had made himself a few years before. After getting a rabbit and a squirrel he took off again at a slower pace.

He rode until it was too dark to see in the dense forest. When he got off his horse he realized how tired and sore the day of riding had made him. He ate the squirrel quickly after cooking it over his fire and lay down to sleep immediately after.

He realized as he lay there that he’d made a mistake. A week was not very long to find and kill a man who lurked in the endless forest that still remained. He’d wasted one aimlessly riding and now it would take another to ride back. That left him with only had one day to find and kill a man. He didn’t want to think about what would happen to him if he was late. Ryan didn’t accept anyone who stepped one hair out of line.

Sighing to clear his thoughts he decided this was a problem for tomorrow. He closed his eyes for only a second when a heard the breaking of a branch. Fearfully his eyes snapped open and he realized another mistake he made. He forgot to place torches around the camp. This meant he was open for any of Kdin’s monsters to attack him.

Slowly he reached for his diamond blade. He knew it would barely be of any use with his pathetic leather armor sitting in his pack by his horse. Standing, he held his blade up awkwardly and unsurely. Swordsmanship was not his strong point and he was scared. With another snapped he lunged. When his blade dug partially into a tree a voice to his left shouted, “HOLY SHIT!”

The voice startled his horse away, “Bollocks….” he mumbled then angrily looked to his left. He was face to face with a man in a bearskin hood and coat. His hair was brown and curly and his face had an expression of annoyance written all over it. “Mogar.” He breathed.

“The fuck are you doing in my woods creeper prince?” He grabbed Gavin by his tunic and pulled him slightly closer to his face.

“Who said they belonged to you?” Gavin replied in a moment of bravery. He swore he heard another shuffle in the bushes, but before he could be sure he was brought back into the small argument.

“Who said your king could burn them to the ground?” The bear-like man growled in reply.

Gavin opened his mouth ready to reply. Before he had the chance to, however, he saw a movement of green behind Mogar. He gulped loudly. Gavin  tried to mouth the words he wanted to scream, but his mouth  had gone dry.

Sensing his opponent’s fear Mogar asked a simple question, “What?” He turned his head to quickly look behind him. He did a double take and began to run just as the other man finally screamed what he wanted to. “CREEPER!”

Gavin blindly ran off the opposite way of Mogar. A loud and sharp bang went off behind him. He turned his head to check on his enemy hoping deep in his heart that the other man had died in the blast. He saw the glint of a diamond sword and the movement of the man getting back on his feet. Before he could react to seeing Mogar alive he lost his footing. He was closer to the edge of a cliff than he thought he was. Taken off guard he let out a shout as he fell to the bottom of the ravine.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

When he started to come to the world was a grey blur. It hurt to open his eyes, but a loud conversation above his limp body growing closer made him not want to fall back into unconsciousness. “You do realize who he is?” Gavin heard Mogar say.

“Yeah.” An unfamiliar female voice replied.

“You still want to take him to Pattillo?”

“Yeah.”

“Lindsay, he’s Ryan’s prince! He was sent to kill me!”

“I know that Michael!” She replied sharply, “We can use him. He must know something.”

“And if he dies?”

“Well burn him.”

“And if he’s already dead?”

“We’ll leave him! Jesus Michael, Stop worrying.”

“Fine then. Check.” The voice stopped next to Gavin’s body.

“How?”

“I don’t fucking know. Wake him up or somthing.”

Gavin was preparing himself to open his eyes when the woman gently shook him awake. He discovered soon he had mistaken the woman. A stinging cheek was added to his aching body when the woman violently slapped him. “WAKE UP!” She screamed as she did it. He slowly reached to his face to calm the burning sting that remained from the woman’s hand. The moan he let out signaled to her he was still alive.

“Fine.” Mogar grumbled. “Let’s go.” Gavin was picked up roughly by the larger man and flung over his shoulder. As the man started marching out of the ravine the pain once again took Gavin into the darkness.

*****

The second time Gavin came to it was far less pleasant. The sound of himself choking woke him up before the actual pain of not being able to breathe did. He sat up too quickly to cough up the fluid that was keeping him from breathing. His broken body hurt from the movement.

"You were supposed to swallow that not inhale it." A friendly voice joked to his left.

"Jack?! How’d you find me?" Gavin croaked turning to the bearded man next to him. He looked around trying to figure out where he was. He was in a relatively small room with white walls and rows of beds all around. He saw stairs leading to a second floor at the base of which Mogar sat staring at his hands. “Where am I?” He asked Jack.

“Achievement City Hospital.” The other man replied as if Gavin should know.

“We don't have a hospital though."

"Thats why I built one."

"You were supposed to be hunting Mogar on the other side of the bloody world not building shit! Why are you here with him.” He quietly hissed out the last part. “Let me guess Matt and Jeremy are here partying with the kingdom’s greatest enemy too!”

Jack looked solemnly at his friend. “The only enemy of this kingdom is the man who rules it, Gavin. I’m free to do as I like in my free time.” Jack stood up. “I’ll make you another potion you should be fine to leave tomorrow.” Gavin followed him with his eyes as he walked past a smirking Mogar on his way to the second floor.

“What the hell are you so happy about?” Gavin demanded from his bed.

Mogar turned to the other man still smiling with a cocky grin. “I can’t believe how stupid you are, fool.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“You honestly just got pissed at Pattillo for not listening to the Mad King.”

Gavin didn’t say anything, “He’s gonna get killed.” He mumbled finally.

“Haywood will kill him anyway.”

“He doesn’t kill anyone who listens.”

Mogar started laugh after that. “If that's what you want to believe." He stood and started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Gavin didn't want to be alone even if it meant being with his enemy.

"Some has to feed you fat assholes and I'm not making my wife do it alone."

Before he could prolong the conversation anymore Mogar left the room. Gavin suddenly felt very alone in the unfamiliar room. When Jack came back he decided it was better if he said nothing and just drink the health potion he was given.

The rest of the day he spent alone. Jack left him alone a few hours later and both he and Mogar didn't return until night. Gavin was left to his own thoughts. They were mostly just trying to figure out what to tell his king. The anxiety of what will happen to him  in less than a week were slowly driving him mad. When the door finally opened to Mogar and his wife Gavin let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Miss me?" The other man said sarcastically.

Gavin flushed, "I got lonely."

"Why didn't you just sleep?"

"I wasn't tired!"

"Well I hope you're hungry." Gavin hadn't payed attention to red-headed woman before she now handed him delicious looking plate of food. He was somewhat amazed at how the feathers sewn in her dress gave the illusion of fire, almost like a human phoenix. "This is delicious!" Gavin exclaimed after taking his first bite.

"Thank you."

"Lindsay stop flirting with that idiot and come eat with me." She told her husband crudely to shut up and leave her alone before marching across the room to take his hand and lead her up the steps to the unknown second floor.

Gavin found himself alone again. Just as he finished dinner and layed down to sleep. Jack returned along with another familiar man. “Caleb, I want you to report to the king that Matt and Jeremy found Gavin wounded. Bring him this and say you don’t think Mogar lived.” He handed him a torn pelt similar to the one Mogar wore as a hood. “It should keep him off our back for a while. Maybe we’ll have a chance to plan the assassination. I’ll send Mogar to check in on Miles just say everything went well.”

“I will. When will you bring Gavin back?”

“Tomorrow or the day after. He needs rest still, the potions only do so much for him.”

The two men started having lighter conversation as they made their way to meet Mogar and Lindsay upstairs. Gavin’s stomach felt like a rock. How could he be so blind to a coup to the king. Everyone he thought was on the same page as him, hiding in fear, being a good boy to stay safe, were secretly against the king and were quietly saving lives and planning a rebirth. He fell asleep with the future looming over him.

*****

Gavin woke up gasping. He felt choked, like he was drowning and being hung at the same time. The moment he realized he was not still in the same place as his nightmare and he was in a completely different one he calmed down and had already forgotten what his dream was about.

It was still night. At first it seemed no one was in the large main room of the hospital except him. A voice on the bed next to him shocked him awake, “Your conscious finally getting to you, Creeper Prince?” Mogar sat on the other bed eyes fixed on him.

“It’s had me for a while…. Were you watching me sleep?”

Mogar shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep either.”

“Why not?”

Mogar smirked, “You honestly think I can sleep an easy night when your king wants me and my wife dead. I’m being hunted by monsters scarier than you could imagine.”

“I’m pretty sure I can imagine it just fine.”

“Your king doesn’t count.”

“I don’t mean that. You call me ‘Creeper Prince’ but you really don’t know.”

“Know what? I thought they called you that for being a cold blooded murderer of your father.”

Gavin felt sick at that reminder, “We weren’t related. He adopted me.”

“Does that matter?” Seeing Gavin’s upset face he tried to change the subject. “So tell me why are you called Creeper Prince.”

Gavin locked eyes with the man who now acted more than overly friendly, “There used to be a village on the outskirts of Achievement City where the creepers stayed close to and the people who lived there felt like they had been cursed to live in a hell. We could peacefully avoid those monsters during the day, but at night it was a different story we were hunted. We made something better of our situation. We were a rich village being able to make explosives very easily and we could mine using it. We had all the wealth we could have, but we were surrounded by our deaths every day.

“My friend Dan and I had lived there our whole lives not knowing there was a world where monsters didn’t lurk. Once we got through our childhood rather than becoming farmers we became miners and wall builders. Every day we built and every night we mined.

“Time passed and we lived a very normal life. It wasn’t until I was 16 that I learned about the world around me. I met the knights of the king. They came to my village to rid it of these monsters. I later learned that the creepers had become an issue for the capital and that was the only reason why they came to help. My life started falling apart long before Ryan was king. When he was still just a dog of the king.

“He convinced my village, me included, that we should fight against the creepers and be free to incorporate with the rest of the kingdom. I honestly believe that he had our best interests in mind when he first came. Of course when he saw our hoards of gold and diamond and iron and obsidian his mind changed. Howelse could he get all of our riches with us living?

“I was working when the fight began. They broke a hole in the wall my own hands created to let the small army of villagers through to fight. I stood with 5 other men to help keep the monsters out. My best friend stood alongside the army. The plan was to fight all night until the morning led them to retreat. We’d find the nest and destroy that. The only problem was how was a village of untrained fighters supposed to do anything but defend like they used to.

“The knights never came back. Six men couldn't hold off the hoard. I’ve never seen more blood in my life. I searched for Dan. I couldn’t find him anywhere. When I did I felt relief. We made a split second plan to run. Before I could even move I saw one of the monsters sneak up behind him. I didn’t say anything and I ran in fear. The last thing I remember is the explosion. Geoff found me and took me into his home days later. I was starving, I was scared, I was mourning. I couldn’t take what had happened.

“Geoff wasn’t the first person I killed Mogar, Dan was. It just stopped mattering to me after

that. I already killed my friend. Ryan’s promise of riches and pride and power made me feel like I could be better. I guess in the end I can’t.” The air around the men was tense. Gavin had started to cry, “I guess I killed Ray too, which I suppose you’re mad about too. He always talked about the great Mogar who had saved him from himself. Who had changed him from a criminal to a man in the king’s court.” Gavin sighed and the silence resumed this time Mogar broke the silence.

“Michael.” He said simply.

“What?”

“My real name is Michael. Mogar is just a name people gave me. I don’t share my real name a lot.” He extended a hand which Gavin took, “You can know it. You’re better than I expected. I didn’t think you realized how awful your king is. Why did you team up with him.”

"I don’t know. I didn’t want to believe that they’d left us on purpose but now I know he's a monster. I just don't believe he can be stopped."

Michael opened his mouth to reply but interrupted by the sleepy voice of his wife, "Michael? Why aren't you in bed?"

The brown haired man stood. After nodding a quick goodbye to Gavin he met his wife at the base of the stairs. "Goodnight Gavin."

"Night Michael."

*****

Gavin woke up the next day later than he had since the death of Geoff. Jack greeted him with a quick examination to see if he was fit to travel. He was "as good as new" as Jack put it. After the examination Jack went up to talk to Michael before leaving with Gavin. He told him to get ready while they talked. Gavin was disappointed when he discovered he lost everything but the clothes on his back. Everything else was either broken or lost in the fall. Gavin had nothing to help him get back home.

About an hour after getting ready to leave for home Jack finally came down. Michael followed close behind. “I hope you don’t mind if I keep you a couple days longer.” Michael said with a friendly smile.

“Why?” Gavin said cautiously.

“We need to do a chore for Caleb. I want you to come with. It’ll only take a couple days, plenty of time for you to get back still.”

“We’re not going near the kingdom or anything, right? I’d be killed if we were.”

“Of course not! You know Caleb’s job. Making sure the people pay their taxes and aren’t planning treason.” He laughed a little at the irony of their ally. “He was supposed to check in on Luna. We just have to make sure he’s being a good boy.”

Gavin sat on his bed feeling Jack waiting for him to give the correct response, “Fine, fine! I’ll go but this better be quick.”

There was no preparations to be made. Michael insisted that Gavin would be fine without weapons since their “client” was extremely non-violent. Miles Luna wasn’t what Gavin was worried he’d need to fight. He knew Miles, who was a long-time friend of Kerry’s, he was just worried they’d be attacked like they had when they met in the woods by unpredictable creatures under Kdin’s control.

Michael’s care-free attitude helped Gavin ease up a little. The entire trip should only take a few hours, as Michael explained, with sleep they’d be back at the hospital the next day. From there Jack would take him back to Achievement City. For now, Gavin followed Michael somewhat amazed at how easily the wild man traversed the forests. While Gavin could barely keep himself standing Michael was about 20 feet ahead of him. He frequently would stop and impatiently wait for the prince to stumble up to him again.

Their day started pretty uneventful. Michael didn’t say much and Gavin realized quickly that their heart-to-heart last night really didn’t change the tensions between the exiled mercenary and the prince. “For someone who knows how to use a bow as well as you you sure suck at getting around.”

“I’m not allowed in the woods usually… How they hell do you know how good I am with a bow?”

Michael smirked and blew air from his nose, “You honestly think I couldn’t hear you coming from miles away. Even relying on a horse rather than your own feet you’re louder than an exploding creeper. I’m amazed you were able to shoot that squirrel.”

“Well I know what you’re doing here too.”

“What am I doing Gavin?”

“You’re trying to trick me into joining you guys.”

He raised his hands, “Oh no, you’ve got me. We’re not tricking you. We’re just trying to get you to realize things aren’t as hopeless as you think they are.”

“Why are you suddenly being so nice anyway. You hated me yesterday then suddenly last night we were best friends.” Michael kept walking, but Gavin could hear him stifling laughter. “What?!”

“You’re just so fucking stupid.” He stopped trying not to laugh, “I can’t believe I ever saw you as a threat.”

“Shut up! I am not stupid!”

“Right. You’re the only dumbass I’ve ever seen miss a giant ass cliff right in front of their fucking face.” Michael kept laughing at Gavin’s expense while the prince started at him disgruntled. He tried catching his breath but every time he looked up at Gavin he would start laughing again. Finally he stopped laughing long enough to finish his speech, “Point is Gav, I don’t see you as a threat to my family anymore. All I see from you now is a valuable ally.”

This made Gavin smile a little, “Don’t lie you just want to be my friend.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“C’mon Michael. You can be my boi if you want.”

“Shut up. We’re almost there.” Michael said with a slight twinge of relief in his voice.

“Alright, my boi.” Gavin said with a smile.

Gavin had never actually had been to Miles’ house. Miles frequently came to the city to visit Kerry while Geoff was king and in the early days of Ryan’s rein. Kerry and him were childhood friends who’d grown up as close as brothers. After Kerry became a knight Miles and him saw less and less of each other with Kerry being on so many missions and Miles starting to focus more and more on his playwriting career. When Kerry became Ryan’s right hand man their bond nearly broke. Ryan had had his eyes close on Miles since about 3 months after he became king. Miles couldn’t convince Kerry to leave with him or at the very least to not follow Ryan like a dog. After Ryan told him not to return to downtown he started writing plays against the king illustrating his murders and evils he committed. Now the poor man lives almost completely as a hermit. He still is allowed to write plays, but only on topics the king wants and can only perform in front of the king and an audience who can some how afford to go. Kerry can visit twice a month and otherwise Caleb or Jack checks on him once a month to see how his plays are coming along no one else can see him.

The house was nicer on the outside than Gavin had expected. It looked like it was two stories. It was small but it looked cosy. He couldn’t help but wish his house looked similar to this cosy cabin in the woods rather than his cold cobblestone walls. He was also surprised to see the theater was in sight from it since he never saw a house in the horizon while he saw plays with his king.

Michael loudly knocked 3 times on the front door while Gavin examined the area. The door creaked open a few inches, “What do you want.” Miles hissed before suddenly pulling the door open, “Mogar? Why are you here?”

“Making sure you aren’t dead and that you aren’t doing anything stupid.”

“Where’s Caleb? He was supposed to see me this month.”

“Our little prince had an accident while hunting me, so Caleb is informing the king I’m dead.”

The two men smirked, “How’s the play coming.”

“It’s ready.” Miles then realized Gavin was there, “Why is he here?” He said panicked, “He can’t see--” Miles tried to shut them out but Michael firmly held the door open.

“He’s with me. The fool won’t do anything.”

“I’m sorry I’m not letting him in.”

“That’s fine, right Gav?” Gavin was a little hurt. He thought Miles and him were on better terms, but he did also understand that Gavin was probably seen as another figure pulling Kerry away from him and ruining his life. Gavin squeaked out a yes. Michael extended his arm, “Now hand it over.”

“No.”

“Who do you want to carry it to the performers?”

“Jack can do it.” Miles stood uneasy. He looked worn down. Gavin wasn’t sure why a simple play would make him so worried but he had his hunches that this was a part of the bigger something Gavin never thought would exist. “Could you leave now Mogar I have work to do.”

Michael nodded curtly. Gavin was worried the other man would be mad and chose not to say anything to avoid getting snapped at he also chose to walk as quickly as he could to try and match Michael’s pace to keep him happy. He soon found this was in vain. His companion was in a better mood than he thought. “That went quicker than I thought.” He mused checking the sky, “We might be back by sundown.” He gave a smile to reassure Gavin of this, “I hope you don’t mind the cryptic talk. I can’t technically tell you what that was all about, but I can see there will be a show to remember next month.”

“It’s fine.” Gavin was still upset at how he was greeted, “I never realized how poorly people saw me until now. Miles and I used to be friends.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Michael tried to reassure him but Gavin knew that he felt Gavin had no reason to keep any friends after what he’d done. “Hey, Gav, do you mind if we make one quick stop.”

“Will we still be back before dark.”

“Of course.”

“Lead the way then.”

They didn’t go very much farther into the woods. It was a less conspicuous than where Miles was living, but the house was more haggard looking. Michael told Gavin to wait far from the front door while he went up to the house. He knocked on the door 3 times just like at Miles’ house. An old woman stepped out. “Michael!” She kissed him.

“Hey Barbara, I got you more supplies.” He handed her the entire backpack he’d been carrying.

“That’s so sweet of you.” Michael blushed a little, “Can you stay this time.”

“Not now. Wait a couple months. Lindsay and I will stay as much as you want after that.” He kissed her on the cheek and walked back to Gavin.

They started walking back to the hospital after that. Gavin stared at Michael in slight awe. The embarrassed man snapped back when he looked at the prince, “What?”

“You visit your mother?”

Michael blushed, “She’s just some old lady. Helped me when Ryan almost got me. She can barely afford the taxes. If I don’t bring her supplies she wouldn’t be able to feed herself.”

“Doesn’t she farm or somthing?”

“She lost it all to your king.” He spat. “She has nothing. Just like every other non-royal family in this fucking kingdom.”

“Sorry.” Gavin felt like Michael blamed him somewhat and decided it would be best if he kept his mouth shut after his whisper of an apology . They walked in silence neither trying to remedy the brief argument that had occurred. The sun had gone down not long after they left Barbara’s house. They were almost to the hospital when they heard a noise. It was like a vibration followed by the wind whistling. “What was that?”

“Stay behind me.” Michael hissed drawing his diamond sword.

Gavin was happy to oblige since he had no weapon. Michael crept forward slowly. The noise happened again closer this time. Gavin looked in the direction of it and at first saw nothing. Then he saw a dark purple aura of a tall menacing demon. He screamed and the creature lunged for him. Michael’s sword impaled it before it could touch Gavin. “Run.” The mercenary breathed in Gavin’s ear as he dragged him along by his arm.

“What the sausage was that!”

“I have no clue!” Michael panted, “They started showing up about a week ago… I think Kdin has something to do with it.

“Are we being followed!?”

“Don’t worry that one’s dead.” Michael checked behind him. “There might be more, but they never come close to the buildings. If we make it back we’ll be fine.”

Gavin was already exhausted. He didn’t know if he could run that far. Michael seemed to sense this and slowed briefly to sling the smaller man over his shoulders and start carrying him to the hospital. “Michael! You're gonna hurt yourself!” Gavin didn’t get a response.

Soon after he saw the light of the hospital and Michael finally spoke again, “LINDSAY THE DEMONS ARE BACK!” Faster than Gavin had expected the fiery woman jumped out of the window of the second floor. Her hand’s seemed to light on fire as he conducted some sort of magic. Michael burst into the doors and threw Gavin on the floor before he himself collapsed, “She’s… making a forcefield… we’ll be fine.” He panted clutching his chest.

“Are you gonna be okay, boi?” Gavin asked concerned.

Michael smiled, “I’ll be fine, boi.”

Jack came down and Michael explained what happened. Neither seemed to worried. After their brief discussion they had a pathetic dinner and went to bed. Jack promised quickly to bring Gavin back the next day.

*****

After calming down from the excitement of last night Gavin slept easily for the first time since Geoff had died. There was some leftover food around the hospital that he ate and he got ready nervously anticipating his return. Mimicking yesterday Michael and Jack came down the stairs. “You two should check on the villagers today.” Jack said pointing to Michael and Gavin.

“Wait, hold on Jack. You said you were bringing me back.”

The air became very tense all of a sudden, “Why do you want to go back?” Michael growled.

“Well I can’t rightly stay. The king knows I’m alive and he’ll be looking for me.”

“I thought I got you to understand how much of a piece of shit that man is!”

“Michael I’m not helping you. There’s nothing I can do for you.”

“SHUT THE HELL UP! HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF MY FRIEND AND CRAWL BACK TO THAT MONSTER!”

“Michael calm down. He can go back if he wants to. It’s probably better if he does.”

Michael looked at both of them in shocked amazement, “Unbelievable. I wasted my time for nothing.” He stormed towards the door.  
“Michael.” Jack unconvincingly tried to call him back.

“Michael I’m sorry. Please understand why--”

“Gavin,” Michael stopped at the door, “Go fuck yourself.” He left.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

“You failed.” Ryan melodically said with poison in his tone.

“No! No.” Gavin frantically replied. He had been swept into the king’s chamber by Kerry the moment he stepped into Achievement City. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been here, but he knew it was probably going on hours. He told Ryan exactly what Jack said to, but he knew his inability to lie was his downfall here. Ryan knew that Mogar was alive. “The creeper blew me and him off that cliff. I missed the avalanche that followed, but I’m certain he didn’t.”

“There was no avalanche, Gavin, my men checked.”

“Ryan I--”

“Get out.”

“I’m telling the truth.”

“OUT!”

Gavin sprinted out of the room fearful of his king. Kerry was outside of the door offering for Gavin to help set up the theater for the play happening in a couple days. Gavin declined the offer wanting to stay as far for Michael as he could for now. As Gavin started walking out of the castle behind Kerry he heard Ryan stand and exit the main room.

Checking over his shoulder he saw he was alone. Curiosity got the best of him and he decided to follow the mad king. He had gone through the hatch in the floor that had formerly led to Geoff’s storage rooms. No one had been allowed down there except Kdin and Ryan in months. Gavin saw why the moment his feet gingerly touched the ground at the base of the small latter.

The formerly well lit room was now a darkened tunnel. A strange aura seemed to come from deeper inside. Gavin could hear the sound of Ryan’s footsteps echoing through the tunnel. He decided to remove his shoes after hearing that before creeping forward to continue following the king. Now that he was surrounded by a nearly unbroken silence Gavin started to hear some unnervingly familiar noises from the end of the tunnel. They were the same noises the demon in the woods made. Gavin’s stomach dropped when he realized that they must be a creation of Kdin’s.

After about 5 minutes of walking they came to an old oak door. Ryan opened it without hesitation and pushed it partially shut behind him. His hand was still holding the knob when Gavin reached the door finally. He was able to peak into the small crack in the door to see a strange scene.

They were in a library. They being Ryan, Kdin, and Jack. Jack was bent over a large obsidian structure. “I’m glad you were able to finish it so quickly.” Kdin said to him as Jack lit a fire inside. The red-orange flames immediately turned to purple and engulfed the entire structure. After that Ryan closed the door fully and stepped in. “Sir, I know you were unsure of this project, but now that it’s complete I’m certain it will be a success.”

“Tell me again what kind of creatures this will summon.”

“Demons from the nether world. Monsters no one has seen before. With this no one will go against you and you can have everything in the world to yourself.” Gavin could practically hear the slimy smile that Ryan must be showing, “I have control of some demons I fabricated myself. They will lead us to the greatest power. The Ender Dragon. We only need to make one more portal and with an animal and human sacrifice you can activate it my lord.You will become a master of a beast so great that Mogar will stand no chance.”

“You’re certain he won’t be able to stop us.”

“Unless he has an enchanted blade strong enough to kill my Endermen.”

“If he’s alive.” Ryan said hopeful.

“He is My Ender creatures saw him in the woods visiting his mother again.”

“Kill the woman.” Ryan said without a second thought.

“Yes sir. What do you want me to do with the man who followed you here?”

Gavin let in a sharp inhale of breath. He turned quickly to run, but was face to face with one of Kdin’s demons. It made a strange vibrating sound then disappeared allowing Gavin to take off at full speed down the hallway. He was in the main room of the castle before he heard any foot steps following him. Gasping for air due to fear more than anything he took off in another direction to try to find a way into the tunnels or out of the castle to get into him home.

Running through his 4th door into another hallway he saw a figure in front of him. He came to a skidding halt before he ran into the person. He felt sick with fear as they turned around to face him. It was, “Ray!?” Gavin’s voice cracked, “Oh no!” He moaned, “Kdin got me!”

“Where the hell does Kdin come in here, bro?”

“You’re dead. There’s no way I’m seeing you if I’m alive.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re alive Vav.”

Gavin stared at his former best friend in amazement, “You’re not dead. You’re really here?” He breathed.

Ray shrugged looking down at himself, “Yeah. I guess so.

“But I killed you X-Ray.”

“I guess I got better.” He laughed it off.

“Where’ve you been this whole time?”

Ray opened his mouth to speak but upon hearing a door open he closed it and pointed Gavin down a hallway, “I don’t have time now Vav. Go that way the tunnel to my old house is there. Stay in there until they find you and say you were mourning me or some sappy bullshit like that. I’ll meet you at your place later to talk about this.”

“But X-Ray.”

“Go!”

Gavin ran in the direction that Ray had pointed him. When he looked back to see if Ray was okay before disappearing into the trapdoor to the tunnel his friend was gone.

*****

Gavin was found in Ray’s house not long after. No one seemed suspicious of him except Kdin, but when the sorcerer said nothing Gavin was told to simply go home and stay there for a couple days while the looked for the intruder.

From there there he sat on his bed or laid on his bed staring at either the door or ceiling waiting for his friend to come as he promised to. Hours passed with nothing. Gavin didn’t get bored of waiting and didn’t grow tired during the time. He was too anxious to see if his friend had forgiven him for backstabbing him, literally.

Around midnight the long-awaited knock sounded on his door. Gavin lept to his feet immediately to pull the door open. Ray stood there in the same old suit he used to wear. Gavin still couldn’t comprehend his friend being alive and wanted to ask him a thousand questions.

Ray stepped into the room without asking for permission and immediately grabbed the prince by his tunic and pulled him within two inches of his face, “What the hell GAVIN!”

“Wot?” Gavin asked stupidly.

“Why the hell are you still with The Mad King!”

“I-I’m the prince Ray.”

“Prince to what!?” Gavin had never seen his best friend so mad before, “He’s killing people Gavin! He killed your family, he--”

“I don’t have a family Ray!”

“Do you not care he killed me?” Ray looked sorrowfully into Gavin’s eyes, “Just because Kdin’s been using me doesn’t change that he tried to kill me.”

“Don’t you think I feel guilty about what I did? Why couldn’t you tell me you were alive?”

“It’s not like I ever saw you in the castle. I thought you were gone Vav! I thought you were better than Kerry!”

Gavin opened his mouth and closed his mouth unable to find words to reply. Finally he groaned, “Well I’m not.” and threw himself onto his bed.

“Gavin get up.” Ray said exasperated.

“No.” Gavin’s voice was muffled by his pillows, “If you’re just here to yell at me you can go. I’m going to bed.”

“Vav please.” Gavin felt his friend sit on the edge of his bed. “I’m just mad because I thought you were smart enough to do something about this mess.”

“There’s nothing I can do, Ray.”

“There is something you can do.” Ray said encouragingly.

Gavin rolled over to face his friend, “What?” He hissed out.

“You can plan against him Gavin. You can use his old plan against him. You’re as close to him as you were Geoff. He trusts you’re too stupid to kill him. While that may be true, with some help you can help be his downfall.”

“I’m not falling for this again. First Mogar, now you.”

“You met Mogar?”

“He tried to get me to join the coup against the king.”

“Great! We have something going now!”

“No. We have nothing Ray.”

“Why not?”

“I left and he hates me now. We’re alone and doomed. As I said, there’s nothing I can do.”

“Vav. C’mon we’ll--”

“I’m not bloody killing someone again!” Gavin shouted before throwing his face back into his pillow.

“Whatever Gavin.” Ray mumbled, “If you don’t want to make up for what you did you can live the lonely life of a hated man you asked for.”

When he heard the door slam shut, Gavin let his tears free to fall.

*****

Days passed slowly after that. It was as if he was back to the days immediately after he had killed his king. He didn’t see Ray. He didn’t talk to people. All he wanted was to make what had happened better. Ray was right. He had ruined himself and the only way to fix it was to overthrow Ryan, but how was he supposed to when he was such a coward.

The only thing that really got him out of his house was setting up the theater for Miles’ performance that friday. He was in charge of making sure that everyone knew their parts and backing up Kerry’s cleaning and design. He saw Miles on the Thursday before talking to Kerry. They both seemed uneasy. Gavin felt like Miles had told Kerry. That feeling was solidified later that day when Ryan told Kerry to “Start the show with something to remind them who was in charge.” Gavin felt sick with fear.

Finally it was the day of the play. Gavin sat uncomfortably in his seat besides Ryan flashy and oversized throne he sat in for public events. Kerry sat on his otherside. His crown itched his head and being next to Ryan made him too scared to lay one finger out of place to itch it. Once everyone sat down and the curtain opened what he saw made him forget about the itch.

A woman hung from the rafters above Miles who was in position to announce his newest story. Gavin recognized the old woman immediately and his breath caught in his throat. Barbara. They found her. Ryan spoke, “Some people think that they can keep secrets from me. I hope you understand that we are watching, and we know.” Ryan smiled his fake sick smile then waved for Miles to start.

Gavin sat through the beginning of the play not registering what was happening. He blamed himself for the death of the old woman. Everything had been fine before he made his visit. She wasn’t involved in the coup against the king. Her only association was from giving birth to the great danger to the king. The reason she died was because Michael wanted to keep her safe. That Michael hoped so much for a friendship that he trusted him enough to know where people he protected lived. Now, just like Ray, he would blame him and never forgive him.

To keep himself from crying over the woman in front of him king he tried to pay attention to the play. Zoning in and out he realized it was about Ryan’s rise to power. His king seemed to be enjoying it. A disgruntled noise from Ryan snapped Gavin’s attention fully to the play.

Miles had showed the murder of Geoff. Rather than Gavin killing him it was Ryan however. Gavin could see Ryan tense at that. Soon after the play returned to it’s lighter tone and Ryan eased up. Gavin watched it intently after that. It played nice with Ryan. Showed how he built homes and how his taxes ensured safety. Occasionally it would twist against him. In one scene they defended Mogar saying he did nothing wrong and was a savior to the kingdom. Gavin knew it was nearing the end when they illustrated Michael’s death.

The stage went black suddenly after that Michael stood in the center of the stage in front of the set for the castle. His eyes burned into Ryan’s. “The difference between a fair king and a greedy one is how long they live.” He spoke walking towards the actor who played Ryan, “Long live King Ramsey. Down with the Mad King.” He impaled the actor and turned back to the king. With a sly smile all hell broke loose.

*****

Gavin wasn’t sure how he made it to the castle that night. Ryan was outraged and ordered them to find every man, woman, and child in charge of the play. Within the hour Kdin’s demons had come with all of them but Miles. “What are you going to do with them.” Gavin asked his king sheepishly.

“Not now Gavin.”

“Please don’t kill them Ryan.”

“Don’t tell me how to rule my kingdom, fool!” Ryan hissed, “Where is Kerry!” He called to Kdin.

“Ryan.”

Ryan turned to Gavin. His face turned from rage to sympathy in seconds, “Prince Gavin,” He said in a falsely sweet stone. “You do understand what will happen if we let these people go. Just look at the play. Chaos. This kingdom will fall. I am its only support. We have to stop them.”

Gavin wanted so badly to be brave enough to speak against this. He wasn’t brave enough though. He just bowed his head and let Ryan pat his shoulder like a dog and then took his place waiting by the door.

A guard came soon after with Kerry beside him, “Where were you?” Ryan asked the boy.

“Calming the crowd as you told me to, sir.”

“For an hour?” Kerry looked nervous, “Well seeing as you were gone doing your job I suppose I should update you. We found everyone but the playwright, Miles Luna. You are friends with him correct?”

“I was, sir.”

“Until you chose to follow me I’m sure. You knew he was bad news.”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“Well I was planning on executing everyone invol--”

“No!” Kerry cut in. “No, sir, please they didn’t know it was only Miles and Mogar’s plan.”

“Oh? So you have been talking to him.” Kerry bowed his head, “It’s okay Kerry. I know you only wanted to protect your friend. It’s so hard when you can’t convince someone you are close to to see what’s right.” He lifted Kerry’s face gently by the chin so they’re eyes met, “How ‘bout this Kerry. I’ll make you a deal, you tell me where Miles is and I’ll let the others go.” Kerry’s eyes lit up, “What do you say?”

Bowing his head again Kerry gave his reply, “I’ll tell you everything you want to hear.”

“Come Kerry let’s discuss this with Kdin and the guards.”

Ryan led the way to the door to the right of the throne. As Kerry passed Gavin behind Ryan the prince grabbed him and hissed in his ear, “What the hell are you doing?”

“What?” Kerry whispered back.

“Miles is your best friend why the hell are you selling him out?”

“I have no choice. There’s nothing I can do.”

Gavin’s own words rang in his ears, “Yes you do. Tell the king to piss off.”

“He’ll kill me!”

Gavin began to get angry, more at himself than at Kerry, “Better to die than serve that monster.”

Kerry only shook his head at that and went into the room following the king. “You may go now Prince Gavin.” Ryan called from the door.

Gavin left as soon as the words were out of Ryan’s mouth. When he got his tunic off and fell into bed all he could think about is how much he wanted to see Ray.

*****

Gavin woke up to screams outside his door. After the initial startle he got dressed as soon as he could. He knew what was happening, but he didn’t want to admit to himself that Ryan actually did it. But he did.

When Gavin stepped onto the lawn of downtown Achievement City he saw the gallows had been set up sometime last night or in the early morning. It seemed he had slept through the main show. There hung the bodies of everyone involved in the play except Mogar. Miles was the only one still standing. Gavin assumed his king wanted to savor the moment of killing a traitor. The strange thing however was that rather than Ryan standing in place to let Miles fall, Kerry was there. At first Gavin didn’t even think Ryan I was there until he heard him and moved his gaze to see him standing on top of Ray’s former house watching the show.

“You willing went against my rule. You willingly tried to undermine everything I’ve done for this kingdom and have the subjects I so lovingly care for go against me. Are you surprised this is your fate, Miles Luna.”

“You feel love for no one but yourself. I would rather die than watch my home fall into any greater despair. I am glad I could spread light on you’re tyranny.”

Ryan smiled at that. “Goodbye, playwright.”

Gavin watched in horror as he realized why Kerry was there rather than Ryan. He hadn’t seen the tears and utter defeat that had shone in the boys eyes when he first stepped out of his house. Kerry pulled the lever to release the trap door under his best friend’s feet. It seemed so unreal as Miles fell and was caught by the rope around his neck. Gavin heard the snap of his neck and he was sure Miles was gone.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

He was unsure how long he stood in the spot in front of his door. He was frozen in grief and disgust. Ray’s words rang in his head, “I thought you were better than Kerry.” I am. The sudden confidence came to him moments before Kdin made his way up to the prince. “The king wants you.” He said to him halfheartedly before leaving.

Gavin stared at the necromancer, shook his head, then went back into his house. Quickly he grabbed 2 changes of clothes, a small ration of food, his new bow, and a stone sword and pickaxe. Bundling them into his pack he marched quickly into the castle.

In the main hall of the castle Kdin, Kerry, Matt, Jeremy, Ryan, and his guards stood waiting for Gavin’s arrival. The gleam in Ryan’s eye said it all before he spoke his one line, “Help my men find Mogar, Gavin, I know you know where he is.” Gavin became very aware that Jack was missing. He hoped that his friend had left before the king got to him.

“No.” Gavin said simply.

“What what?” Ryan replied taken aback.

“Go fuck yourself Ryan. I’m not helping you anymore.”

“What?” Gavin turned to leave, “Where are you going?” Ryan demanded.

“Anywhere but here.”

*****

Gavin ran without a horse for as long as he could. He was confident at first he was going towards Michael’s hide out, but after a while he realized he was completely lost. He began to panic when he lowered his pace to a slow walk. Panting with every step he refused to stop moving. Ryan would be on his trail and his king would not give up until he was found. He was a dead man on the run.

Soon after his breath quieted he started hearing a horse behind him. It sounded relatively close. Fearfully he cursed himself for not hearing this earlier, drew his blade, and tried to hide himself behind a nearby tree. He felt a little better when he realized it wasn’t loud enough to be more than one or two horses. He had a chance.

The dark brown horse finally came into view. Gavin held his blade ready to attack. When he saw the masked tuxedo wearing rider he finally felt at ease. Slowly after checking the surrounding forests he stepped out from behind the tree just before Ray rode up to him. “Ray!” He called to get his friend’s attention.

Stopping his horse Ray turned to his friend, “Gavin!” His voice was heavy with relief, “I’ve been looking for you since you took off.”

“You have?” Gavin was surprised.

“I was just about to give in and admit they’d found you, Vav.”

“I was just about to give up and let them find me.”

The cheerful tone fell to a more serious one, “We need to get going they can’t be far. Kdin’s using his demons to find you. They know you’ll be looking for Michael.” Gavin’s silence worried Ray, “You were looking for him right?”

“To be honest I don’t really know.” Gavin sighed, “I don’t think he’ll want me back especially if I have Ryan on my tail. I just wanted safety until I could escape. Maybe to Gustavo’s kingdom of something.”

“Jesus you’re stupid! Michael needs you. You’re more valuable to his team than his stupid grudge. Ryan won’t find us if we hurry. Lindsay can protect us from being found. We just need to make sure they aren’t right on our tails.”

Gavin smiled a little, “Are you sure?”

“Yes. C’mon we need to start riding.”

It was an awkward minute as Gavin tried to get comfortably seated on Ray’s horse. No matter how much he squirmed he didn’t feel like he would stay on the horse. Once they started moving this was even more of a problem. Holding tightly onto his best friend the horse slowly picked up speed until they were nearly at a full gallop uncomfortably making their way back to the mercenary.

Gavin realized soon after that they were not anywhere he recognized. He wondered if it was just because the was that lost in the forest, or if Ray had become even more lost than him. He half hoped that they just wouldn’t even find Michael. Even with Ray consoling him, he was nervous about what the man he was almost friends with would do to him when he returned.

Ray oddly didn’t look like he was lost. He seemed very concentrated on where he was going. Not looking around trying to find something familiar, but following where he knew he should be going. Finally they reached a promising looking landmark. A large tower with torches at the top. Unless you were on high ground you never would’ve been able to see it. Ray slowed enough for Gavin to hope to have a break from riding, but after a brief time to check the area he took off, slightly slower, to the left.

Another few minutes and Gavin was sure they reached their destination, this time in the form of a small cave. At first he didn’t think much of the cave other than Ray slowing down. It could’ve been temporary shelter for the night, but when he and Ray got off of the horse he was able to see iron bars inside the cave. This was occupied by someone.

Ray told Gavin to wait by the horse while he went in the cave. Gavin heard the clank of the iron bars and then saw Ray poke his head out of the hole. Gavin brought the horse with into the cave. Once he was in Ray pulled a lever on the wall a few feet from the door-- far enough you couldn’t just reach through and pull it-- and the iron gates shut behind the prince causing him to jump. When he started to walk again he wondered to himself how Ray had gotten in without a similar lever on the outside. Sensing his question Ray only answered, “No way in, no way out.”

When Gavin focused on where they were he was not impressed. He had expected it to be more occupied looking. It just looked like a normal cave. There were a couple doors embedded in the walls and a large room at the end of the tunnel that was obviously carved out that showed people obviously were living there. Beside that only a crafting bench, some furnaces, and some stray pickaxes showed anyone had been here. Dark and damp rock surrounded him everywhere else.

Ray grabbed the reins of the horse and pointed towards the door on the left, “Michael’s in there. Go talk to him. I’ll tell Jack we’re here.” Gavin barely registered the news of his friend being okay while he entered the room. He was nervous and hoped he hadn’t left Michael on as bad of a foot as he thought.

Michael was sitting on a small cot that was among others in the small sleeping quarters. He was sharpening his diamond blade and watched his hand with a mixture of sorrow and annoyed concentration. “Gavin Free.” He spoke solemnly. “Prince Gavin Free.” He didn’t look at Gavin while he spoke. “What does the foolish murdering Creeper Prince want.” He gritted his teeth as he spoke this line. “You left us once, killed my friends, and now crawl back here wanting us to trust you.” Violently jerking the stone down his blade he stared at Gavin. “Tell me why I should trust you, give me one fucking reason.”

Gavin whimpered, “I didn’t know Michael.”

“Know what?”

“I didn’t know they’d kill them!”

Michael stood silent staring at Gavin with empty eyes, “Swear.”

“What.”

“Swear you will be loyal to us and only us before I fucking kill you.”

“I-I swear I’ll help you.” Gavin held up his hands.

“You know that without you this is hopeless. You know that we can’t do this without you. You know that they are closer on our trail than we thought and we only have one shot at this. We have weeks at most and without you we have no time.”

“I promise Michael!”

The door opened at that moment and Lindsay stepped in. It took her a moment to register what she was seeing. He eyes flashed in annoyance before she stepped between Michael and Gavin and swept Michael’s sword away from Gavin’s chest. “What the hell are you doing?”

Michael smiled slightly, “Making deals.”

Lindsay sighed, “Leave him alone. He’s terrified of you.”

“I know.”

She sighed again, “Dinner’s ready idiots. Jack wants to discuss plans and shit.” She waved her hand in the air to represent the ‘plans and shit’ and then swept herself out of the room.

Michael smiled again at Gavin this time. Gavin knew that all of Michael’s annoyance at him melted away somewhat. With a quick jerk of the head toward the door Michael left the room and Gavin followed.

The room they ate in was the large cavern that was carved out of the natural cave. Lindsay and Jack had just finished laying out plates when Michael and Gavin got to the room. Ray was already sitting and Gavin took the chair to his left. They ate silently. Gavin felt strange with everyone just accepting his presence without caring about him leaving. He wondered what the plans would be now that he’d gone against the king.

After Michael took his final bite he cleared his throat and began to speak, “So Jack are you going to explain the plans or what?”

Jack smiled a little, “Michael and I have been constructing plans to stop Ryan pretty much since he became king. The process only increased when we learned about Ryan’s thirst for Michael’s blood. It became very evident to us that we couldn’t do it without an insider. It wouldn’t work, we needed someone close. Once Gavin showed up at our doorstep I knew he was the one we needed. With a little convincing Michael agreed too. Now more than ever we need to get this plan in motion.

“To preface this I need to tell you exactly what I was building for Kdin and Ryan. Kdin is opening a portal to a hellish place that was once only myth. He made me build a portal for him that led to the netherworld where he would take demons and control them to help Ryan have absolute control of this world. Ryan has no motive for control other than he is completely mad. It is urgent we stop him and Kdin before these demons walk free.”

“But aren’t those… Ender-things already free?” Lindsay asked.

“Yes, but it gets worse. Those are not directly from the netherworld. They are more of creations of Kdin’s that he used power from the netherworld to create. Simply we need to get in the castle and kill him and Ryan before they can hurt anyone else.”

“Why not just destroy the portal?” Gavin asked and suddenly all eyes were on him.

“Yeah let’s destroy the portal and leave the murdering king in power.” Michael snapped.

Jack looked at the embarrassed Gavin before continuing, “It was an honest question Michael. We’ll destroy it after, but Michael is right. Without Ryan dead we’re doomed anyway even if he can’t rebuild the portal without me.”

Gavin raised his hand before speaking this time, “You originally told me that we’d have to get Ryan like I… y’know got Geoff.” He whispered the last part, “How are we supposed to do that if Ryan wants me dead for going against him now?”

“We changed the plan a little since we last saw you. Basically, now we’re just planning a secret invasion of the castle. Ray and you know the secret passages and ways in and out. We can sneak in and kill the king and this will all be over. It sounds simple, but it will be difficult. Tomorrow we’re going to go buy weapons from a nearby shop dealer. For now I have one question to end this discussion of our plan. Do you know a way in?”

Gavin considered for a minute then spoke, “Do you have a piece of paper?” Once some simple writing supplies were gathered Gavin drew a crude map, “I think there are going to be guards around the downtown so this may not be the best way.” He looked at his drawing to make sure it was good, “There is a tunnel in the old knight’s quarters that lead into the castle. It was for emergencies like invasions or somthing. I don’t think Ryan blocked it because it is a good way in and out of the castle quickly. The only other tunnel would be in Ray’s house which is too far in to sneak in. So we could somehow sneak into the city--”

“Or tunnel into it.” Ray offered.

“Yeah, or that. Then we would be able to get into the castle and catch Ryan by surprise.”

Jack started talking again after this, “I think that is a perfect plan. Mogar and I will refine it a little tonight, so don’t worry about anything Gavin.” Gavin was happy people seemed to be going along with his idea. “After we get in we know the plan. We’ll try to lock Kdin in the library or reason with him, but if we can’t Lindsay and Ray will have to try to kill him.” Gavin cringed slightly, “The rest of us will go find Ryan and hopefully be able to overwhelm him and easily end him.”

“What about Kerry?” Gavin asked worried for the poor boy.

“We’ll leave him. I don’t think he could possibly cause us any problems.” Michael sneered.

“What will we do about a king after Ryan’s dead?” The room was silent and all eyes fell on Gavin after his question. “Wot?” He asked confused, “Do you not have an idea.”

“Well we thought it would be obvious.” Ray said.

“What do you mean?”

“You.” Michael said.

“Wot?”

“You’re prince idiot!” Ray laughed, “You are the only one in line to be king and you’ve been through two of them already you’re the only one qualified to be king.”

Gavin didn’t know what to say. He never considered for a moment that they’d choose him to be king. “I don’t know if I can do this.” He whispered.

“We wouldn’t have picked you if we didn’t think you could.” Michael’s sentence lifted Gavin’s spirits. If someone who never trusted him since they met believed he could be king he felt that maybe he could.

“I’ll do my best.” Gavin swore more to himself than to the others.

Michael nodded to him before Jack started talking again. “That’s all Michael and I really needed to discuss with the rest of you. It’s late. Tomorrow we are going to buy our weapons and do some training before we leave for Achievement City. Everyone get some sleep. You will know everything you need to do by that time.”

Gavin, Ray and Lindsay settled into the cots in the small room in the cave. Gavin heard Lindsay’s breath fall into the even rhythm of sleep not long after her head hit the pillow. He wasn’t sure about Ray. He figured his friend was too far from him for him to be able to hear anything more than his shifting. As for Gavin, sleep seemed futile.

He layed in bed listening to the quiet, but urgent discussions in the room he was just in. He couldn’t make out what Jack was saying, but his loud ally led Gavin to have mixed feelings about their mission. Their plan was solid, but Michael couldn’t stop stressing his fear for Kdin’s demons. Gavin was worried that Ryan’s ally was a solid constant that would prevent any end to Ryan’s rule.

After an hour or so the talking stopped and Jack walked into the room. Just like Lindsay he fell asleep and began snoring quickly. Michael never entered the room. With Jack’s loud snoring Gavin realized he was never falling asleep and decided to venture out of the room to find something to spend his time doing. He grabbed his quiver and backpack and left as quiet as he could.

Before he was able to leave a small voice called him over, “Vav? Where are you going?”

Gavin turned to Ray who was laying in his cot staring at the ceiling, “I’m gonna fledge some arrows, to get ready.” He held up his supplies.

Ray beckoned him over by waving his arm. Gavin sat on the bed across from his friend. “Are you doing okay, Vav.”

Gavin paused a beat before speaking, “I’m fine. If you’re worried about me sleeping it’s normal.”

“That’s why I’m worried.”

Gavin sighed, “Please Ray don’t say that it’s not my fault or something. I know what I did and I know it was wrong. I feel guilty and--”

“You really don’t think you should be king don’t you?” Gavin nodded solemnly, “Y’know I wasn’t sure at first either, but when we talked about it Michael offered your name up right away.”

“I just don’t understand. He hates my guts and doesn’t trust me, but he trusts me to be the next king.”

“He’s a good judge of people,” Gavin scoffed at this, “I mean, he knew I was worth it. I was nothing more than a dirty homeless thief. He came along and got me a job for the king. Within 2 weeks my life was turned around. He saved me from some awful death whether it was murder, jail, or starvation. It’s gonna be the same for you. Even though you did wrong he knows you want to do better. You’re not in this alone. Don’t worry so much.”

“Thanks Ray.” He felt like crying. “I just…” He didn’t know how to say how he felt. He didn’t trust that Michael was setting him up to succeed. He thought that he was just being pushed into a place so Michael could prove to everyone he wasn’t worth it. Gavin already knew that.

“If it worries you so much about what he thinks of you why don’t you go talk to Michael. I’m sure with a little push he’ll be friends with you in no time. You’re not doing anything wrong. Michael’s just seen a lot and has trouble getting close to anyone. I’m sure he’s still awake just go find him.”

Gavin nodded and made his way out to the door with his supplies back in hand. He figured that even if Michael wouldn’t talk he could still get his work done. He didn’t get very far out of the door before he heard a sharp scraping by the entrance. Turning to his right he saw Michael silhouetted against the moonlight once again sharpening his blade. Mustering some courage he walked up to his ally, “It can only get so sharp you know.” He said lightly.

Michael turned to look at Gavin the turned back, shrugged, and went back to sharpening his blade.

Gavin plopped down right next to him and pulled out some arrows and began to repair them. “I can’t sleep either. I guess it’s for the best that we use our nervous energy to prepare.”

“I’m not worried. I’m just angry.”

Gavin looked at the other man and stayed quiet. His first instinct was to ask about what. He knew. He was angry at him. He was angry at Ryan. He was tired of watching the people around him dying. “I’m sorry I killed Barbara.”

Michael stopped dead in his place, “It’s not your fault… It’s mine.” He choked out.

“Ryan wouldn’t have cared if I didn’t get involved.”

“She was going to die soon anyway. Her health was going. She…” Michael stopped and Gavin saw tears fall from his eyes. “Dammit.” He wiped them off his cheeks with his arm.

Gavin could tell he was embarrassed of crying in front of him. He wasn’t sure what to do. He never had to comfort anyone he considered stronger than himself. Cautiously he placed an arm around his shoulders and comforted him with an awkward side-ways hug. With a whisper of, “I’m sorry.” and “It’s okay.” Michael started to cry again.

“It’s not your fucking fault.” He said as his sobs calmed, “You fucked up. You know you fucked up. You’re going to be king so suck it up. I thought you’d be happy and stop being a whiny pissbaby.” Gavin was taken aback, “If it’s anyones fault it’s mine. You’re too stupid to see when things go wrong, I’m not. I should’ve done something. I should’ve realized a long time ago what Ryan was doing and been less selfish and I could’ve saved lots of people.” He put his head in his hands and continued quieter, “I wish I were you. Too stupid for anyone to hate. The world ready to redeem you. All I ever wanted was to protect people, and here I am with more dead than I ever saved.”

Gavin wasn’t sure how to reply, he barely even knew how to comfort the man in the beginning. He knew how he felt in a way though and somehow that seemed to be enough. When the door to the bedroom creaked open and a quiet Lindsay walked out looking for her husband to go back to bed with Gavin was wished goodbye in words he never expected this conversation to end in. “Thanks my boi.”

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5

Gavin was dying. Not only had he been abruptly woken up by Michael pushing him out of bed before dawn, but now, after a long day of training, they were on their way to buy weapons from a small shop by the sea. Even if it was a relatively short trek his entire body still ached from their rigorous training.

That morning after Michael literally kicked him out of bed he had barely any time to eat before they started talking about strategy. His groggy state kept him from retaining much information about the newly smoothed over plans for the invasion of the castle. Later, Ray would have to explain to him where they would sneak into and how they would get past the guards. Lucky for Gavin it was not much different than the plan he had talked about using last night. The only thing added was a possibility of sneaking up the back of the castle if needed.

The training itself was horrible. Michael had decided before they even began it was his job to turn his pathetic excuse for fighting skills into something more helpful. The day consisted of a lot of yelling and beating. Michael would yell at him to do something different then when they did their practice fight he got his ass kicked every time. He felt hopeless and continued to promise to do better. It almost seemed that Michael really didn’t care how awful Gavin was unlike the others which Gavin was grateful for.

After lunch when Gavin was more awake they regrouped. Between bites of food they discussed the possibility of a new strategy around the fact Gavin was useless. The small group through around ideas that mostly led to Michael killing the king and Gavin doing next to nothing. Discouraged Gavin stayed quiet knowing he had become a burden to all of them.

“We need to leave soon.” Michael interrupted the discussions, “Gavin come grab supplies with me before we go.”

Gavin happily obliged, but in the back of his mind he couldn’t help but think that this privacy would allow Michael to tell him how worthless he was for the mission.

“What about smoothing over the plans?” Lindsay asked.

“They don’t need smoothing over. We go in we kill the king end of story.” With that Michael left in his abrupt way as he usually does with Gavin following. In the cave they did exactly what Michael said. At first Michael didn’t talk as they gathered up the supplies, but right as they were about to be done he spoke to Gavin. “You shoot well right?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Show them.”

“Why?”

“Even if they’re trying to be nice about it they’re making you feel like shit. You’re better than what they think. You can’t handle a sword for shit, but I’ve seen you hunt. If there is a single animal in the forest take it down. I’m not gonna stand by while my friends feel like shit for no reason right before I need them most.”

When they reunited with the group Michael divvied up the supplied for everyone to carry an equal load. While doing that he took a small leather pouch out and put a good sum of money in it. “I need you to give me everything you have.” He explained, “We’re gonna need to buy weapons and armour since we don’t have great supplies to make our own.” From there he went around to each person other than Lindsay. Jack had about as much as Michael had which made up for Ray having nothing. Gavin was embarrassed to have next to nothing on him. Ryan didn’t let him have enough, but the others seemed to understand.

After getting the money Michael led the group on the walk to the sea. Gavin lagged far behind the others out of exhaustion. He never took Ray or Jack as the athletic type, but he assumed this wasn’t their first training session based on their ability to keep up with Michael. This time the mercenary was more patient with his pace. Never once on the whole walk did he draw his bow. He was too tired to bother.

After about 2 hours the group stopped causing Gavin to nearly walk into them. When he focused on where they were he was greeted with a beautiful sight. Waves crashed into white sandy beaches to his left, and too his right there was a rolling landscape of farmland, a rare sight in the new Ryan-ruled world of strict control. “Where are we?” Gavin breathed.

“Achievement City Farms.” Jack said proudly, “I made it with some help after Ryan started to control farmlands. This is soley how the poor stay alive.”

“Where the hell do we get weapons here?”

Michael pulled Gavin along by his arm and pointed him to a small shack by the sea. There was a large sign on it, but it had been weathered down to the point that Gavin couldn’t read it even once they were standing right in front of it. It looked like it couldn’t have been bigger than one room. Gavin wasn’t able to see inside the single dirty window because a large counter was in the way. Behind the counter a man was rifling through a chest. Michael cleared his throat.

“Hm?” The man turned around apologising. “Geoff’s Farming and Mercantile, how may I help you?” The former king smiled, “Nice to see you Mogar.”

Gavin thought his heart stopped. He couldn’t breathe or even begin to think of what to do or say. It was as if everything stopped in place. Cut off and full of pain he managed to get the man’s attention with a labored, “Geoff?”

The shopkeeper looked at the prince and gave a friendly smile, but said nothing to him. “What can I help you with Mogar?” He asked.

“Weapons and armor.” Michael tossed the bag of money on the counter.

Geoff looked into it, “Sorry buddy. I’m out. I came back from the mine and got mugged. Sold my last set yesterday.”

Michael gave an exaggerated sigh, “Great. What the fuck are we supposed to do then.”

Geoff laughed, “I did just get a shipment of pickaxes. I’ll sell them to you for some information.”

Michael looked at the former king, “Why are you with my backstabbing son and why do you need these.” Geoff said sinisterly.

“We’re taking down Ryan.” Geoff started laughing leading to Michael exploding, “What the fuck is so funny!?”

“You and 4 losers trying to take down the king,” He could barely get the sentence out he was laughing so hard, “You honestly think that an old carpenter, a servant, and some easily fooled asshole you can kill a king and get past his insane necromancer.”

“Sorry we aren’t some bitter old fucks like you.”

“What do you plan to even do if this works?”

“Gavin will be king.” Michael said without missing a beat.

Geoff paused then quietly said, “Bring the monster out of power and put his puppet in his place.”

“What the fuck ever Geoff.” Lindsay cut in, “Thanks for nothing.”

The couple began to lead the rest of their party away Michael rambling grumply under his breath about how much of a waste of time that had been when Geoff called back to them, “Wait! Don’t you want your pickaxes?”

“You know where you can stick you fucking pickaxes.”

Suddenly Geoff was behind Gavin, “How about a helping hand. You need someone more competent than what you have.”

The group stared wide-eyed at the old king, “Are you forreal?” Ray said with a smile, “Last time we came here you told us to fuck off.”

“Change of heart. It’s not every day you’re reunited with your son. Besides, what is there for me to lose, this shop? Ha!”

Michael rolled his eyes and started walking again. Jack took the pickaxes from the former king and began thanking him over and over again. Ray couldn’t stop smiling, Lindsay was just trying to get Michael to cheer up, and Gavin just couldn’t get over how Geoff was alive. Eventually he fell back with Geoff. “Good to see you again kid.” The king said.

“I thought you were dead.”

“You never were a good fighter. I woke up right after you left probably. Ray wasn’t breathing and I left before anyone could catch me. I’m amazed Ryan didn’t look for me.”

“Kdin took Ray away he probably assumed he had you too.”

“Yeah…” Geoff said deep in thought.

“I’m sorry.” Gavin said.

Geoff sighed, “I know. That doesn’t change anything though.”

“You can be king if you want when we beat him.”

Geoff didn’t say anything and picked up his pace leaving Gavin alone in back. Once they got back they had a cheery dinner that didn’t help Gavin’s solemn mood and then went to bed leaving Gavin to have a lonely and sleepless night

*****

They started mining in the back of the kitchen. Each of them began in the same tunnel, but eventually went alone searching for any material they could get to add to the measly 4 ingots that Geoff could give up. Michael was pushing for today being the only day they mined. It didn’t take long for Gavin to grow bored. While the others mined very precisely Gavin began to take a more haphazardous approach. The consistency was that he was able to crawl back up if he needed too.

Eventually he broke through the wall and saw a large dark cavern through the small crack. When he leaned forward to get a better look the wall gave and he fell into the darkness. His screech of surprise was cut short when he landed on his back and was winded.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Michael shouted.

After a few moments when Gavin could breathe again he shouted back, “I found a cave! Or I fell into one!” He sat up and saw iron and gold almost as soon as he did, “Michael come down here there’s tons of ore!”

He heard his friend at the entrance he’d carved mumbling something before shouting down, “Get back up here!”

“C’mon Michael help me get the ore!”

He heard the other man sigh then leave. Disappointed for a moment he got up and brushed the dirt off of him. Once he gathered his torches and pickaxes back up he started to lay torches around the room. It was huge and there was probably enough iron and gold in it to finish making their supplies for the fight. In the back he noticed another small opening. Torch in hand he looked through this one with more caution than before. He couldn’t see very far in it, but laid a few torched around it to remind himself to check later. When the last torch was down he heard feet touch the ground behind him.

“Isn’t this cool Michael.” He said smiling.

Michael’s eyes shone in amazement, “Yeah it is.”

“Hey! Did you see this.” Gavin pointed to the small opening, “We should go explore over here.”

“Not now boi. Maybe later.” Michael insisted, “We need to focus.” He’d already started mining the iron out of the wall.

“But Michael!” Gavin whined, “What if there’s diamond down there! That’d be way more helpful than iron or gold!”

Michael sighed as he went up to shove his pickaxe into Gavin’s hands. “I’m gonna get the others. You get this mined.”

Pouting Gavin obliged. Michael quickly crawled up the rope ladder that he’d thrown over the edge. Over the sound of his axe hitting the dirt around the raw ore he heard Michael shout to the other’s about their find. Before Gavin was able to get any ore the group  was already crawling down.

They set up 2 furnaces to smelt the iron and gold. Lindsay, Michael, Gavin and Geoff all mined while Ray helped Jack prepare to start making their supplies. By the time they were all hard at work Gavin was already sore and exhausted and once again cursed himself for not doing more training.

While resting another pickaxe took the job of his, “I knew you’re clumsiness would come in handy some day.” Geoff smiled down at the younger man. “Too bad you’re no good at manual tasks.”

Gavin wasn’t sure what to say. He took is axe up again and worked next to Geoff, “I can keep up.” He tried to prove he was better than Geoff probably thought.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. If you need a break take it. I figure this little dig down will be the last fun we have together.”

“C’mon Geoff. The fight won’t take long. After that we can have all the fun we want.”

“Maybe you can, but I’ll be busy fixing my kingdom.”

Gavin felt the sting of those words. He was okay with not being king if Geoff wanted to take his position back, but it still hurt for his adoptive father to have so little faith in him. “Why didn’t you join Mogar sooner?”

“Why would I? He was one man and his wife against a kingdom. Granted it’s not any better, but the rumors I’ve heard make me feel that it’s only going to get worse. Might as well help before they find me.”

“Why would you do such unfitting work?” Gavin smiled hoping the king would play along.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Geoff said with an irritated laugh.

“I just don’t think a shopkeeper’s really the job for you, Geoff. What you did in life made me expect you’d do something different.”

“What?”

“I don’t know I was thinking a stripper would be a better fit.”

Geoff stopped dead in his work. Gavin dropped his pickaxe and got ready to run from his former king. “I’m gonna fucking kill you.” A wide smile broke across Geoff’s face as he ran after Gavin. The prince clumsily ran to the opposite side of the cave then ran close to the wall tripping and falling into it every so often. He had to weave past an annoyed Michael who was spitting profanities at him. His brief pause from trying to pass up the mercenary gave Geoff enough time to catch up to him.

The back of his tunic was grabbed by the older man and he fell face-first onto the dirt. Geoff dragged him back so he could crawl on top of him. Gavin squealed as he tried to wriggle from the stronger man’s grasp. “You better say you’re sorry you asshole.” Geoff laughed.

“No it’s true.” Gavin laughed in return.

Ray was laughing in the corner with Jack who was trying hard to focus on his work. Lindsay was barely able to stand and had to use her husband’s shoulder to keep herself from falling over in laughter. Michael glared at the two men rolling on the floor, but said nothing. Gavin screamed his name for help and saw a ghost of a smile dance across the mercenaries lips.

Geoff licked his right hand when he was satisfied the prince was trapped. “Geoff no!” Gavin squealed.

“Geoff yes!” Geoff replied wiping his hand over Gavin’s face. While Gavin shouted for him to stop Geoff said, “I will when you apologize!”

“Geoff sorry! Stop this is so gross.”

Spitting at Gavin Geoff got off of him. “That wasn’t so hard.”

“Sorry Geoff. You’re right. You’d be a better whore.”

Geoff took a step at Gavin, but stopped and just laughed at Gavin’s eye-widening reaction. Michael aggressively grabbed the prince. “I’ll explore that stupid cave with you if you work for the rest of the day.”

Gavin smiled then agreed. They continued working as before, but Michael ensured that Gavin didn’t get more than 5 feet away from him. It was silent for too long for Gavin to stay amused. He let his attention wander. Nothing much was happening other than mining, but he was surprised to see that some daggers had been made along with 2 chest pieces. Gavin decided it was his job to lighten the mood again. “Hey Michael.”

“What?”

“What do you call a cave… full of homosexuals?”

Gavin felt like Michael was ready to slap him, “What.” He growled in reply.

“A gay-ve”

Everyone in the cave started laughing again, Michael trying his hardest to not show it. “Shut up. Jack, Lindsay can you start dinner?” Michael asked before starting to mine again. After they left Ray trialing to go ‘take a piss’ he spoke to Gavin again, “Can you reach up there if I pick you up?” Michael pointed to some iron on the ceiling of the cave. Before Gavin could answer Michael spoke again with a sly smile on his face, “Good.” Gavin was roughly brought up onto the man’s shoulders. Shouting in surprise he tried to steady himself with a hand on the wall. “Stand on my shoulders.” Michael ordered.

“Let me down boi!” Gavin said.

“Get the iron and I will.” Michael laughed.

Slowly Gavin stood up. Michael grabbed his ankles to steady him. “Careful with me Michael.” Gavin said warily. As he reached up to mine the iron Michael shouted and shook him. “Careful Michael!” Gavin screeched.

“I am.” Michael laughed.

Slowly Gavin managed to mine the iron that was in the ceiling. On the last one some stones rained down on them. “I found redstone Michael.”

“No shit.”

When Gavin was almost safely on the ground they heard a scream coming from the area where Geoff was. Gavin could see the king had made a small tunnel and was now out of sight. Michael and the prince ran towards the tunnel and looked in at the king. “Geoff?” Gavin asked concerned.

“Holy shit dude. I almost died.” Geoff pulled himself out of the hole.

“What the fuck did you do?” Michael asked checking to see that Geoff was okay.

“I found lava.” Geoff pointed into the cave. “Too bad there was some more gold over there.

Michael jumped into the hole. “I’ll get it.”

Minutes later there was a shout from Michael. “What happened?” Geoff said with a smile.

Michael walked back and the glumly came back into the cave. “I dropped my pickaxe.”

“Hey guys!” Ray called from the top of the latter. “Bring the ore. Dinner’s ready.”

*****

Their dinner went just as well as the mining did. They joked, they argued, but the tone never fell. After putting all the ore they’d mined into the furnaces Jack said that he was very pleased when he saw they had enough iron to make all their armor and more than enough gold for extra weapons if they needed any.

Once their meal ended their work began. While Geoff and Jack worked on making the armor for the group Lindsay and Michael worked on crafting swords. Unfortunately for the bored duo of Gavin and Ray, they were left with nothing to do now that mining was finished. “I wish we could’ve found some diamond.” Jack mused to himself as he worked.

“We could look!” Both Gavin and Ray said at the same time ready to do something other than waiting.

“We’re fine.” Michael said, “My sword will be enough.”

Gavin and Ray went back to fiddling with leftover wood at a crafting bench trying to see what each could build. They soon realized they had no talent and eventually degraded to hitting each other with wooden swords. Gavin’s loud shouts in pain every time Ray landed a hit on him soon annoyed the rest of the party. Almost all at once they yelled at the two to stop. “What are we supposed to do?” Gavin whined.

“I don’t fucking know. Just shut up.” Michael said.

Back to the crafting bench. After about 15 minutes of watching the others work on the third and fourth swords and the 6th chest plate and first helmets, Ray snuck over and took some gold. He pushed Gavin away as he hammered away at the ingots. Gavin kept trying to push his way to see what he was making, but Ray moved to block the prince. After a while Ray turned to Gavin with two poorly crafted boots on his feet. “Check it out Vav.” He said holding back laughter, “I made piss boots.” Both of them laughed for a minute before Gavin got another one of his cheeky ideas.

“Wait here.” He smiled. Quiet as the clumsy man could he snuck over and took the rest of their gold. Working quickly he heated each ingot then fashioned them into 4 large blocks. From there he moved to the center of the dining room to place the blocks on top of each other while Ray watched curiously.

Right as Gavin was about to stacking the last block Michael asked, “Where did all the gold go?” Everyone turned when Ray let out the noise of stifled laughter. “You fucking idiot.” Michael ran towards Gavin, “I’m gonna fucking kill you!”

“Michael no!”

“You just wasted all of our gold!”

“I made the tower of pimps Michael.” Gavin hid behind his creation.

“What the fuck.”

“It’s our friendship tower.”

“It looks kind of like a dick.” Ray laughed.

Michael went after Gavin after that. Gavin was squealing as he tried to run from the larger man. As Michael chased him out of the room he shouted laughing, “Get over here Gavin!” Gavin tried to leave the cave but forgot about the iron bars in front of the doors. Slamming into them he heard Ray start chanting, “No way in, no way out!” From the kitchen as the others tried to finish their work. After ducking under Michael’s grasp Gavin ran towards the bedroom. Turning to see if Michael was in the room yet he saw the door slam. Quickly he ran up to try to open it but Michael was holding it shut. “Michael don’t lock me in here!”

“Maybe if you’re good I’ll let you out.” Michael laughed.

“But Michael we’re friends.”

“So what? That doesn’t make you less of an annoying asshole.”

Gavin heard the locking of the door and whined Michael’s name one more time before he was trapped. After a couple minutes of pounding on the door he gave up, layed in his bed, and eventually fell asleep.

*****

Gavin wasn’t sure what time it was when he woke up. Everyone else was still asleep. He wondered when they’d come in the room and how long he’d been asleep for. Groggy but not tired enough to go back to sleep he got up to pee. When he stepped out of his cot he saw Michael laying in his next to Lindsay with eyes wide open. Once Gavin did his business he went back into the room. Michael had his eyes closed now, but Gavin could tell that he was still awake.

“Michael.” The curly haired man’s eyes shot open at Gavin’s voice.

“What Gavin.” He groaned.

“You promised we’d explore that cave remember.”

“God dammit Gavin, shut up. Why are you bothering me in the middle of the night.”

“Michael please! Neither of us are sleeping anyway!”

Lindsay shifted next to Michael, “Fine just shut up and give me a minute.” Gavin waited only a few moments for Michael to put his old tunic on and grab his weapons after he grabbed his bow and quiver. “Let’s go.” He grumbled. As Gavin held the door for Michael he saw him kiss his wife on the forehead.

Quickly and quietly the two boys snuck down to the cave they’d spent the last day in. Without saying much they widened the hole to be able to fit into. Surprisingly, they found that on the other side was an even larger cavern than the one before. Gavin gasped when he saw it. On the right side was a waterfall of lava. This was the source of what nearly burned Geoff. On the left was a normal waterfall. In the center of the two was a pathway of obsidian.

“Wow Gavin.” Michael said. “For once you had a good idea.” They walked along the path observing their surroundings. “I’m glad we’re friends.” Michael said almost to himself.

Gavin smiled, “Me too boi. You excited for tomorrow when Ryan goes down.”

Michael smiled, “Yeah it’ll be nice not to have death looming over me every day. I can’t wait for you to be king boi.”

Gavin looked down, “I think Geoff should be king.”

Michael looked back, “C’mon Gav. I know for a fact Geoff doesn’t want to be king again. He’s just worried about you.”

“He’s probably right.”

“He’s still cool with you Gavin you’ve seen how he’s joking with you. Just give him time. Hey.” He punched Gavin in the shoulder.

“Ow!”

“Cheer up asshole. I’m not in this fucking cave to talk about feelings.”

Gavin smiled. “Thanks boi. We should keep up this team stuff.”

“What team stuff.”

“Like you helping me, us talking, working together, you can help protect the king.” Gavin paused at him calling himself king. “We’re Team Nice Dynamite.”

“How long did you think about this.”

“Like an hour.”

Michael laughed, “Yeah okay. Team Nice Dynamite.” Echoing from in the cave a vibrating hiss. Both men tensed instantly. In a purple flash one of Kdin’s shadow demons appeared not far from them. “Run.” Michael hissed.

Gavin took off with Michael following behind. He tried very hard not to slip on the smooth stone and fall into Michael. Before they could reach the end the demon apparated in front of them. Gavin drew his bow but Michael shoved him towards the water and ran at the demon with his sword. His first swing missed as the demon stepped back, but with his second miss the demon fell into the lava pool. Michael grabbed Gavin by his arm, “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He hissed.

“Michael did they find us?”

“They’ve been here Gavin. Listen.” Gavin heard a chorus of the demons echoing as he crawled back into the cave. “There’s a spawner here. He’s known the whole fucking time.”

They reached the latter and right as they were about to climb it the wall next to them was hit by something causing a small rock slide. “Tsk tsk, you weren’t supposed to know I was here until tomorrow when I killed you.”

Michael held his sword tightly ready to fight, “Why the fuck are you here Kdin.” Gavin heard the door of the bedroom slam open and footsteps reach the opening to the cave.

“Well of course we couldn’t just let you run around with our prince. I had to keep an eye on you and Ryan wanted me to do some team breaking activities once I told him where the fair King Ramsey was.” As Kdin talked he flashed a small sword that seemed to cause more of the creatures appear in the darkness. He notched an arrow ready to shoot if Michael needed him. His heart sunk when he heard Lindsay scream for Michael from above. “Wonderful that your wife is here to watch you die Mogar.” With a light flick of his wrist the demons hissed and began to walk towards the mercenary.

Michael swung wildly but precisely and struck through each demon that neared him. With every touch of his blade they disappeared into shadow. Gavin saw Kdin’s face warp into rage as he saw Michael fight his demons. “Enchanted blade.” He mused as he threw a small blade at the man. Michael was hit on the shoulder and double over in pain. “I can play that game too.”

“Michael!” Gavin shouted.

“I’m fine! Just go Gavin!”

“No!” Gavin ran towards the mercenary to help. A demon lept between Michael and Kdin.Gavin shot his arrow directly through the demons head and it landed slightly off center on Kdin’s shoulder. The demon still progressed. Gavin vaguely heard Lindsay screaming for Jack to let her fight.

Michael stood to face the demon. He focused on Gavin for a second and saw another demon rush towards the prince. Ducking under his enemy’s grasp he pushed Gavin to the floor to stop the demon from touching him. In the act he was touched and it was as if the beast was sucked into him. He doubled over and vomited dark fluid instantly.

Gavin pulled another arrow taunt and let it fly as Kdin laughed at his hurt friend. This one was closer to it’s mark than the first but was still off since Gavin hadn’t aimed. This gave Gavin time to grab his friend and held him in his lap. “It’s okay Michael.”

“Get away Gavin.” Michael said through clenched teeth.

“But Team Nice Dynamite Michael.”

The larger man pushed Gavin away with an alarming amount of strength. From his belt he pulled out an iron shortsword then turned to Gavin, “Take this,” He held out his diamond sword.

“No Michael.”

Roughly Michael shoved the sword into Gavin’s hands. “You promise you’ll fucking kill the Mad King with my blade.”

“Michael.”

“Promise me fucker.” Through clenched teeth blood dripped out of Michael’s mouth.

“I’ll see you at the castle boi.”

Michael smiled and Gavin ran towards the rope ladder. Before he climbed he turned to let loose another arrow at Kdin. He saw the sight before he heard Lindsay scream. Michael was cut through with the blade Kdin had. Michael fell to his knees and Gavin’s arrow hit it’s mark square in Kdin’s chest.

Lindsay landed on her feet in front of Gavin and took off towards her husband. Fire seemed to dance around her illuminating the shadows. “BACK UP FUCKER!” She screamed at Kdin as he held his hands ready to fight. Gavin turned his head to see the walls collapse around Kdin and Lindsay holding her husband. Just as they disappeared in the rubble he was pulled onto solid ground.


	7. Chapter 7

Gavin didn’t know how he ended up on the beaches by Geoff’s small shop. He remembered hitting the floor and the other men screaming at him to move. He was too numb. “What are we supposed to do now.”

“It speaks.” Geoff grumbled.

“We’re so fucked and it’s my fault.” Gavin started to cry.

“Stop.” Geoff said.

“Bro it’s not your fault. No one knew and there was nothing you could do.” Ray said more comfortingly.

“Besides I’m pretty sure you missed the part where we said we were still going to go for it.”

“They’re going to know we’re coming.” Gavin sighed.

“No they won’t.” Jack said confidently. When Gavin looked up he continued, “I don’t think Kdin could’ve survived. Lindsay goes for the kill. They lost their messenger.”

“We’re not as fucked as you think Gavin.” Geoff said. “But we’ll only continue if you think we should. You’re going to have to be our leader now.”

Gavin realized he was still holding Michael’s bloodied blade. “Let’s do this.” He said determined to keep him promise to Michael.

*****

Gavin led the way back to the kingdom. He followed the beaches to get there in a roundabout way that he didn’t think the King would anticipate. Once the curve of the island brought them about a mile behind the now-visible castle he stopped his party. “I still think we should try the tunnel into the castle, but if that fails we can sneak into a window in back.” Everyone nodded to signal they understood then Gavin took them closer.

The closer they got to the downtown the more wrong it felt to Gavin. Was Ryan so confident that Kdin had killed them that there were no guards patrolling the city, or was this part of a bigger plan? Before he knew it he touched the grass of the city, no need to dig in like they thought. “Do we just knock on the door then?” Ray asked trying to lighten the mood.

“Ryan won’t be out in the open. It’s deader out here than usual. They know.” Gavin motioned for the rest of the group to follow as he snuck around the old knights house and then went to go in. Inside Gavin was shocked.

“Where’s Edgar?” Ray asked staring down into the hole that once only went down 5 or so feet, but now held a staircase that led to nowhere.

“Who the fuck is Edgar?” Geoff asked.

“Edgar is the one in the hole.” A voice behind them rang. “He’s still down there if you want to see him.” The party turned to see Ryan. He had a diamond blade in hand that paired nicely with his over decorated armor and cloak he was wearing. “I’m almost happy Kdin didn’t manage to kill you. Now I get to do it myself.”

Gavin drew Michael’s blade and faced the king. “Run!” He ordered to the others. The three of them obliged and Geoff and Ray managed to get passed the Mad King and onto the lawn. Jack on the other hand was hit by an arrow from behind. Behind him Gavin heard someone coming up from the staircase.

“Sorry Jack.” It was Kerry.

Kerry to aim at Gavin next, but the prince was able to easily dodge it. Behind him he heard Ryan grunt as his blade was struck by either Ray or Geoff’s. Gavin ran to unarm Kerry, but the boy ran down the staircase before he could get to him. “You’re no match Creeper Boy. Without Mogar you don’t have the skill to beat me even if you did kill my necromancer.” Ryan shouted through grunts as Ray unrelentingly struck at the king.

In a small fit of rage Gavin went to hit the king. Unfortunately this gave Ryan an opening to escape down the hole that the prince had been in the way of. Gavin immediately went to chase after his king, but Geoff grabbed him to stop him. “What!?” He demanded, but when he saw Jack he knew why he was stopped. He fell to his friend’s side. “Jack! Are you okay?” He shook the man.

Jack tried to get up, but after wincing in pain gave up. “I’m fine.” He insisted, “Go get Ryan and leave me here it’s just a shot in my shoulder.”

Gavin looked at Geoff who said nothing and then to Ray who solemnly replied to his look with, “He’s right. We can’t back out now.”

Gavin nodded. “We’ll be back, Jack. Don’t worry.” He promised before following the remaining two of his friends into the hole after the Mad King.

*****

The staircase wasn’t as long as it looked, but the system of tunnels it lead to were nearly pitch black with only a disturbingly familiar purple aura giving any light. “This isn’t good.” Ray breathed. Gavin knew why. They obviously had gotten farther with their plans than he’d thought. Without Kdin’s control who knows what would happen now if they failed.

They soon realized this tunnel system was more complicated than they thought. It was less like an underground lair for whatever evil was cooking and more like a labyrinth. They walked progressively quieter with every step that echoed throughout the entire tunnel system. The atmosphere made them all uneasy and jumpy. With any unexpected noise from the others they jumped ready to fight. Eventually they had reason to be scared.

“Was that you Ray?” He asked when he heard a deep exhale of breath.

“No.” Ray said in a scared voice.

“What was that.” Geoff cried quietly.

“What?” The younger men asked in unison. Then they saw a cape slide across the dirt as it walked past them. Gavin motioned to follow it.

When they rounded the corner the figure turned to them it’s diamond armor gleaming in the purple light. The moment it saw them it took off. Gavin screamed after it and then the 3 men took off after it. Not more than 20 steps later the walls erupted into shots of fire. The men stopped dead in place to avoid being burned to death as Ryan continued to run away. Luckily the fire shots ended quickly and they continued to run.

The tunnels in this part of the labyrinth were less complex and soon after they were back on the trial. Right before Ryan was able to round another corner, Gavin released an arrow from his bow and hit the king in a small hole in between his chest piece and shoulder guards. The king slumped against the wall for a moment before drawing his diamond blade with his nondominant hand and rushing towards Gavin who now also held Michael’s blade and rushed back at him. With 2 swift movements Gavin dodged his enemy’s clumsily-held blade and impaled him with his own. It was only when Gavin looked into his opponent's face with a triumphant smile on his own he saw who he’d just killed.

“Kerry?”

The boy smiled as Gavin gingerly dropped him to the floor and breathed, “All hail the Mad King.” With his last breath.

Gavin stood breath short and rapid in shock of what he’d just done. His time to mourn was short as he heard a hoofed galop behind him. “Edgar!” Ray shouted as he stood in the path of the bull. Gavin shouted for his best friend to move out of the way but was too late he only had time to close his eyes before Ray was trampled, but when he opened them he was surprised to see the former servant still standing and the beast shaking off the dizziness from hitting the wall.

“Ghost Ray!” His friend shouted triumphantly as he went to impale the beast. His sword missed its mark when the bull took off in the direction it came.

Geoff looked in amazement at Ray and then said dully, “Let’s follow it?”

Running Gavin asked his question, “What the hell, Ray?”

“I never said I was alive when Kdin got to me.” He smiled, “Shame our secret weapon had to come out to a cow though.”

It was soon obvious that Geoff was right to follow the bull. It seemed to be leading them somewhere. As the prince ran he made sure he still had his arrows and extra sword on him then picked up pace to run ahead of his 2 friends.

After it’s final turn the bull ran through a doorway at the end of the tunnel it had led them to. When they also went into the doorway they faced the real Ryan. He stood petting his bull in front of a  small set of stairs that led to a large portal adorned with eye-like jewels. “Welcome to The End.” He smiled. His next move surprised all the others as he stabbed the bull with his sword then said, “Now I just need a human sacrifice and the world will be mine.” as the bull fell. Ryan ran towards Gavin.

Ray stood between them and let the sword phase through him before striking the king. “Gavin!” He screamed, “Deactivate that portal! Michael’s sword was enchanted strike one of the jewels.”Ryan’s face twisted in surprise as Ray laughed, “You’re surprised. I stole that sword for him right before I left Gus’ kingdom.”

Ryan dodged Ray’s blade as Gavin ran up the stairs. The prince was struck in the knee by Ryan and fell onto the staircase dropping his sword in the process and leaving him vulnerable to Ryan. The king smiled a wicked smile, “I’ve been waiting for this day since you failed to kill Geoff,” he said as he raised his blade to kill Gavin. Before he had the chance to the king looked up to see Ray on top of the portal with the diamond blade in his hand. “Don’t!” The king screamed.

Ray smiled a mischievous smile then let Michael’s blade down onto the jewel, “YOLO!” he screamed.

The blast from it knocked all of them but Gavin back. Ray dropped the sword and it was juggled into Geoff’s grasp. He ran up to the king to fight him. While Ryan was trying to get reorganized Geoff smacked him in the jaw with the base of the sword. The crown fell off of Ryan’s head as he stumbled back. Aggressively he rebounded and swung Geoff. Their swords met twice before they both ran at each other poised to kill. Gavin screamed as he saw Geoff be impaled. Both men fell to the ground Ryan landing on top of Geoff.

Ray ran up to Geoff and kicked Ryan off of him. Gavin could see that the king was already dead, but Geoff was struggling to stay alive. Ray looked fearfully at the prince and Gavin hobbled over as well as he could with his wounded leg. Both boys sat next to their former king.

Ray leaned over and grabbed the crown off the ground. After brushing it off he placed it on Geoff’s head. “We won Geoff. You did it you’re king again.” He smiled as tears flowed down his cheeks.

Awkwardly Geoff grabbed Gavin’s arm and removed the crown from his head to place it on Gavin’s, “I’m not next in line.”

“I don’t understand.” Gavin said. “I’m not you’re heir and even if I was your not dying yet Geoff.” He almost pleaded as he cried.

Geoff just smiled, “Who do you think I trusted to take my kingdom after me, son. You were always Prince, Gavin Free.” He turned to look up at the ceiling then closed his eyes. “Long live the king.”

He was gone.

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

Epilogue

It didn’t take long for Gavin to get settled into his position as king. Ray helped him where he could and once Jack recovered he helped Gavin rebuild what he could of the kingdom before his official coronation day.

Everything went so perfectly after that nightmare. It was as if all evil was gone. No monsters walked the nights and no one lived in fear anymore. The only one who seemed to be haunted was Gavin who still lived through many sleepless nights. His dreams were no longer haunted by dreams of his sickening guilt, but rather by dreams of his wishes for his friends to be alive and well. Even with rumours of a fire-like woman living in the woods, Gavin couldn’t get over the death of Michael Jones and his father Geoff Ramsey.

Tonight was no different than the others even with the excitement of his coronation the next day. He woke up before sunset and put on his tunic. Walking as quietly as he could so he wouldn’t wake the guards he made his way onto the lawn of Achievement City. On the other side where Kerry’s house had been was a small graveyard. Two stones had been there since Ryan’s rein started, but one new one was there in front of which was a diamond blade.

“I miss you boi,” Gavin breathed tears falling, “I wish Team Nice Dynamite could’ve lasted longer.”

Behind him he heard footsteps. “Hey boi.”

Long Live the King

 

 


End file.
